Interstellar Academy by Kennedy Harkins (read books for money .TXT) 📕

August 2, 2465:

I sat outside my father’s personal office, waiting to get the diagnosis on how monumentally--literally, since I crashed into one-- I’d screwed up in their eyes. The downside to my latest adventure was that it was surely going to land me a oneway ticket to Correctional Camp. Again. The plus side? I’d cut my parent’s vacation to Earth Colony Gamma short by a couple of months. I was almost more impressed by that than my ability to hotwire a XI Cruiser, a supposedly impenetrable craft.

Igor, a mountain of muscle who doubled as my dad’s lap dog and my bodyguard, opened up the aged, oak door and said, “Mr. Alkaev will see you know.”

The study was circular and deliberately fashioned to resemble to Oval Office. The plush, blue carpet was the finest money could buy, hand woven in the underwater cities of the Syreni on the planet of Kalid. The immaculately maintained, striped furniture had been in the family for generations. It would have been worth thousands more than my life if I was just any slag on the street. Since I was me, I’d say it was about even.

A man with my dark hair and freckles stared at me from a beautifully carved wooden desk. “Astraea.”

Wow. Wreck one stolen vehicle, don’t see him for a few weeks, and, suddenly, he’s calling me by my full name.

“Daddy.” I nodded to him and the frozen faced woman sitting on the couch. “Mommy.”

I sunk into the nearest arm chair. “You both look fantastic. Dad, the crows feet are barely noticeable. If we extinguished all the lights and the sun, you wouldn’t look a day over 600. And Mom, I’m loving the new orange tint to your skin. It’s like a neon sign reminding us all to never go for the bargain price on genetic tanning.”

Dad ignored me. “You stole a cruiser.”

I opened my mouth to confirm that, but that clearly wasn’t what he was looking for.

“You then proceeded to crash the craft into a statue of one of the most influential humans ever born. A statue built by the United Galaxy. Which, you are well aware, is a council I’m a member of. Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is?”

Embarrassing for him? He wasn’t the who picked a dud craft to steal. I just had to hope none of my friends would hear about it. That kind of rep could ruin a person.

“I would’ve have had to review your actions with my peers and decide whether or not to prosecute. That would damage my standing with them. Perhaps irrevocably.”

I picked at my nails. “Good thing you made it all go away then, isn’t it?”

He pursued his lips. “You’ve gone too far this time, Astra. The other stuff--that was local. In my jurisdiction so to say.”

“Nothing’s out of your jurisdiction.”

“I can’t have you smudging the family name on a galactic scale.” He ran his fingers across the desk. “No, you’ll have to be punished.”

Great. I said my silent goodbyes to my holo privileges. I wondered why my parents had to fly back to ground me. They’d never had any trouble before doing that halfway across the universe.

“Your father and I have given this a great deal of thought.” My mother had a musical voice that sounded pure even when she was lying through her teeth.

I’d never known my mother to give anything much thought.

“We’ve decided that you’d benefit from some time off planet,” Dad said. “This place... well, if it can’t whip you into shape, I don’t know what will.”

They were sending me away? I smiled, mentally packing what I’d need for an extended stay on Earth Colony Gamma. Swimsuit? A couple of those, at least.

“--won’t be returning to Haverson this fall or studying with your private teachers.”

I blinked. “You’re taking me out of school?”

This kept getting better and better. Not only would I be getting an extended vacation, I wouldn’t be expected to pretend to care about algorithms and Shakespeare. I needed to demolish spaceships more often.

“We’re not taking you out of school, Astra,” my mother said. “We’re enrolling you in a different one.”

August 2, 2465

I spread my wings, basking in the glacial blast of wind against them. The air rushed at them, biting at the delicate skin but also stretching the tiny muscles connected to the feather light bones. The cramped feeling of being grounded for too long evaporated, leaving a glorious kind of elation that only high altitudes could bring.

It was a perfect moment. And then it wasn’t.

“Why are you flying so slow?” A voice beside me whined. “You’re supposed to take me hunting, not bore me to death.”

His scrawny body twisted in the air, spinning up into the sky. He beat his wing’s harder, procuring a lead over me. He had the same thin, leathery wings as I did, marking him as Kver instead of Scala, a race that had feathers on their aerial appendages.

“Can’t keep up?” My little brother called over his shoulder, the wind almost swallowing his words.

Other boys my age have mousy brothers who do as they’re told, I told myself. Lucky them.

I dove, increasing my velocity. The air cut at me with brutal swipes. I laughed, letting the sound die out before it got farther than my own ears, and luxuriated in the feel of the cold against me. It tousled my hair violently, and I realized that it’d be a long time until I’d get to feel this way again.

Hyperextending my feet and head towards one another and using my arms as anchorage, I swooped out of my descent, doubling my earlier speed and height. I hurtled right past Akakios, only glimpsing his outraged expression for a scant second.

“How’d you do that?” Kios demanded when he caught up to me.

“It’s simple physics. Maybe if you showed up to class, you could do it.”

“I don’t need to. I’m going to be a great warrior,” he said proudly. It almost made me smile until he added, “Way better than you.”

I lowered our altitude a bit, scanning the barren ground for any hint of movement. “Unfortunately, you’re nine. No one cares whether or not you think you need it.”

Kios wasn’t listening. “When you’re gone, I’ll be able to prove myself. I bet I’ll have Notatai of my own before you get back. Then I’ll be the first heir, and you the little brother.”

Power hungry, little git, I thought.

There. I spotted movement on the ground.

Tucking in my wings, I dropped so fast Kios let out a gasp of surprise. When he finally saw what I had, he groaned in frustration. I smiled, the wind against my face.

The small, scrap of fur I’d spotted from the air grew steadily bigger as I descended, revealing it to be a wild korro. It was covered in thick, brown pelt that made it look twice the size it actually was. Still, it easily outweighed Kios and me combined. It’s formidable tusks were marred and scored. This was an old fighter, a beast who had survived many seasons filled with dominance battles.

Perfect.

I landed behind the cover of a couple trees, crouching to absorb the force. The korro had stopped running, choosing to graze on some lifeless grass. It flicked its tusks about in a quiet show of aggression, probably sensing the presence of predators even if it couldn’t see us.

Kios made an audible thud, smacking against the ground next to me. I looked over, and he was a heap of awkward wings and elbows. He snapped the latter in, holding them off the ground in correct posture that took a lot of muscle strength.

His eyes locked onto the korro, and he smiled. “Well? Are we hunting or not?”

Kios took off at a run moving smoothly and silently through the tree line towards the korro. Despite his silent approach, the korro’s head snapped up before my brother was halfway through the trees. It pawed at the ground, puffing air from his nostrils in open hostility.

“Kios, use your--” I broke off when I noticed his bare calf. “--stun stick.”

Which you didn’t bring. Naturally.

I sprinted after him, sliding my own weapon from the strap on my lower leg in the same movement. The trees were closer together than the ones surrounding the city, and I had to weave in and around them to make space for my wings. The barren looking trees scraped me with the exoskeletons the protected their leaves from the climate.

I was a few yards behind Kios when his and the korro’s paths collided. His small body dove to the side at the last possible moment. The beast charged on ahead, leaving me to jump over him.

While the korro stopped and righted itself, Kios sneered at my stun stick.“You need a weapon to take down a korro? They’re walking, domestic meat factories.”

“This is a wild one; he still has his tusks and temperament. Standard procedure--”

But Kios wasn’t listening. He ran back towards the korro, attempting to find the vulnerable spot on the base of the skull. It surged forward in a movement even Kios wasn’t fast enough to counter. The tusks rammed into his abdomen, throwing him through a air, landing a few feet away on his back.

I let the korro charge me, waiting crouched with my stun stick ready. When it was close enough, I drove the weapon up and under his rib cage, sending a powerful pulse of electricity into his stomach. He convulsed, his tusks missing me by scant millimeters. After a moment he was motionless.

I ran over to Kios, not really worried despite the fact that korro tusks could kill a grown Tundrian. Facts were facts but Kios would never die like that, especially so young. It’d be too convenient for me.

His eyes were open, and he watched me open the chest of his suit and look for lacerations. I whistled at the giant, multicolored bruise forming over most of his stomach and chest.

“That’s prime. Maybe you can tell people you got it fighting off a battalion of AIs.”

“Taken down by robots?” he wheezed.

I helped him to his feet. I grinned. “This is way less shameful.”